Is Google trying to buy WhatsApp?

Show 'em the money

Google's hunger for new acquisitions appears to remain unsatisfied as rumours surface that the company is looking to buy WhatsApp.

WhatsApp, the popular cross-platform messaging app that has rapidly eclipsed text messaging as we know it, has been predicted as a big buy for some time. Now it looks like Google is the one circling a deal, if inside sources speaking to Digital Trends are to be believed.

However, word is that the mobile messaging service is playing hard to get, demanding more than Google is currently offering - which is said to be around $1bn (£653m/AUS$963m).

Chatterbox

With Facebook finding its home on the HTC First, 2013 could prove to be a big year for the new age of messaging services, with bog standard text messaging beginning to feel like a thing of the past.

And WhatsApp feels like a no-brainer for Google, which will most likely bring the service as an integrated part of Android in the future if a deal takes place.

Rumours have been swirling that Google is looking to release an all-under-one-roof messaging service named Google Babble, so we'd expect to see WhatsApp play into that

But if Google is to announce Babble at May's Google I/O developer conference, it might want to get this WhatsApp deal done and dusted post haste.

We've contacted Google to ask if it can verify the rumours of this acquisition, and will update if we hear back.